CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT'S NEWS & VIEWS

The Government has proposed changing when employers and payroll intermediaries file employer returns, i.e., employer monthly schedules. The proposal is to file your returns every payday instead of monthly. Payment due dates for PAYE and other deductions won’t change, that being the typical 20th of each month. 

If the proposals become law, payday filing will be voluntary from April 2018 and required from April 2019. This will require electronic filing of schedules directly from your payroll systems. At present, the threshold for being required to file electronic schedules is $100,000. This will reduce to $50,000 going forward. It may be in your best interests to stay one step ahead of this change and start payday filing voluntarily. 
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If you require any assistance in acquiring a payroll system or require payroll support, contact the office and the experienced payroll team will see you right.

From April 2018 small businesses that have turnover of less than $5 million a year can work out their provisional tax using the accounting income method (AIM). 

AIM uses new functionality included in approved accounting software to work out payments. You can continue to use another provisional tax option if you think your business won't suit AIM. It will suit your business if:

• your business is growing
• you're new to business
• you have irregular or seasonal income
• it's hard to forecast your income accurately
• you have an approved accounting software or want to start using an approved accounting software.

Once you've opted in to AIM you'll only pay provisional tax when your business makes a profit. This will help you to avoid cash flow problems.

As long as you make your payments in full and on time, there is no exposure to use-of-money interest. If your business makes a loss you can get your refund straightaway rather than waiting until the end of the year.
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If you think this would suit you, please get in touch with our knowledgeable staff here at the office to discuss further.

For the 2018 income year and onwards, the thresholds around Use of Money Interest being calculated on Provisional Tax instalments has increased to a standard $60,000 Residual Income Tax (RIT) for both Individual and Non-Individuals. Use of money interest will generally be calculated on instalment amounts that have not been met by the due date.

If at any stage you require assistance in meeting tax obligations, we can assist with making a tax arrangement with Inland Revenue or use ‘Tax Pooling’, whereby you can purchase tax payments and these can be back dated to offset against a prior instalment date to minimise or offset penalties/interest.
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If you are in any doubt surrounding these changes or any tax matter you may have, again we encourage you to contact the office to discuss any issue you may have.

Please note we continue to work with a range of accounting software providers including MYOB, Xero and Reckon as we believe you should be using the software that bests suits your needs. The team here at Oldershaw & Co are Xero Certified and Reckon Accredited, fully equipped with the knowledge to help you with your day-to-day accounting. By no means do we push one software package over the other, we will work alongside you to determine the best software package.
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Contact us here at the office to talk about your options and what package can best suit your needs. 

To all our MYOB Banklink clients we are in the process of changing accounting software from MYOB Banklink to MYOB Essentials.  We are doing this to future proof your accounting data as MYOB Banklink software is old technology and MYOB’s support has decreased as they will eventually no longer provide this software.  This change will also mean we can take advantage of the many benefits MYOB  Essentials has to offer such as:

• Cloud based software – accessible anytime anywhere on any device as long as you have an internet connection.
• Real time data with daily bank transactions downloads which means you no longer have to wait for your data to be sent to you and no more checking in and out of files as we will all be working on the same platform.
• Using your web browser to access your information eliminating computer compatibility issues.
• Training sessions have been organised and emailed out to appropriate clients surrounding this move. If you missed the opportunity to attend one of these, please contact the office immediately to chat through this with our staff.